Al-Jazeera / August 1, 2024
Israel’s army says Hamas’s top military commander, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an Israeli air raid in southern Gaza on July 13.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Palestinian group.
“We can now confirm: Mohammed Deif was eliminated,” the Israeli military claimed on Thursday.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called Deif “the Osama Bin Laden of Gaza” and hailed his death as “a significant milestone in the process of dismantling Hamas as a military and governing authority in Gaza”.
“Hamas terrorists may either surrender or they will be eliminated. Israel’s defense establishment will pursue Hamas terrorists – both the planners and the perpetrators of the 07.10 massacre. We will not rest until this mission is accomplished,” he posted on X.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Hamas’s collapse was “closer than ever” after Deif’s killing.
“We must not stop a moment before victory,” the far-right minister wrote on X, adding that the Israeli military would continue to target the group’s leaders until “we destroy them all.”
Israeli opposition leaders also welcomed the news. Yisrael Beytenu’s head, Avigdor Lieberman, congratulated the military for the “killing of the mass-murderer Mohammed Deif” and said the strike was “evidence of our ability to face any threat”.
Yesh Atid chair Yair Lapid said the operation was an “unprecedentedly important military achievement”.
Deif was targeted in an attack that killed at least 90 people and wounded 300 in Al-Mawasi, an Israeli designated “safe zone” west of Khan Younis.
The attack by Israeli warplanes targeted tents housing displaced Palestinians and a water distillation unit. Images from the scene showed Palestinians trying to rescue people from under the rubble, with children and paramedics among the wounded.
In the aftermath of the attack, the Israeli military claimed in a statement that it acted based on “precise intelligence” to hit an area where “two senior Hamas terrorists” and additional fighters hid among civilians.
In a subsequent news conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the two Hamas officials targeted were Deif and senior Hamas commander Rafa Salama. He said it was not immediately clear if either was killed.
Who was Mohammed Deif ?
Deif, 58, was one of the founders of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, in the 1990s and led the force for more than 20 years.
Born as Mohammad Masri in 1965 in the Khan Younis refugee camp set up after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he became known as Mohammed Deif after joining Hamas during the first Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, which began in 1987.
Rising up the ranks, Deif developed the group’s network of tunnels and its bomb-making expertise and topped Israel’s most wanted list for decades.
His wife, 7-month-old son, and 3-year-old daughter were killed in an Israeli air raid in 2014.
He is believed to have survived seven previous Israeli assassination attempts, the most recent in 2021, which earned him respect and fame among many Palestinians.
The Israeli military regarded him as being part of a three-man military council that planned the October 7 attack on Israel that killed an estimated 1,139 people, while more than 200 were taken captive.
In an audio tape broadcast on the same day, Deif named the raid “Al-Aqsa Flood”, signaling it was payback for Israeli raids at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Netanyahu’s government has vowed to kill all three leaders, namely Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Deif, and Marwan Issa his deputy, who was reported killed by Israel in March.
Deif is also thought to have directed military operations from the tunnels and backstreets of Gaza, alongside senior colleagues, in the months since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
In May 2024, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor requested arrest warrants for Deif, Sinwar and another Hamas figure over the October 7 attack, as well as for Netanyahu and Gallant over Israel’s response.
At least 39,480 people have been killed and 91,128 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health.
Source: Al-Jazeera and news agencies
